The modern athletic shoe is a combination of many elements which have specific functions, all of which must work together for the support and protection of the foot during an athletic event. While the design of an athletic shoe has become a refined science, there has been little advancement for cleated footwear.
Cleated athletic shoes, particularly soccer shoes, typically includes a sole having an upper extending upwardly from the sole and into which the foot of the athlete is positioned and secured in place. The sole provides traction, protection, and a durable wear surface. In addition, a plurality of cleats are secured to the sole and extend downwardly from it to provide the traction of the shoe when the athlete runs on a surface ground.
Most cleated athletic shoes, are routinely designed so that the medial side and the lateral side of the shoe do not apparently differ in configuration. Such designs, however, do not take into account the demands and requirements of the sport as they relate to the performance and safety of the athletes. For example, motions prevalent in soccer, such as sides-to-side and foot plating for kicking a ball, create instability in existing cleated shoes leading to fatigue, injury and inefficiency of footwork action.
A conventional cleated athletic shoe usually includes a uniform pattern of cleats in the rearfoot portion and in the forefoot portion of the outsole. While the shape of the cleats may differ from shoe design to shoe design, the shape of the cleats are usually fairly uniform on each shoe. There exist some soccer shoe designs having blade-shaped or blade-like studs or cleats.
Available soccer shoes, however, suffer from a number of disadvantages. Conventional soccer shoes are designed to treat the foot under a uniform or blanket approach to stability or traction control. One disadvantage of these conventional soccer shoes is that such shoes hinder the planting of foot of the athlete on the lateral portion of the sole. This problem results primarily from the relatively high ground impact forces in which the conventional cleats are ill equipped to handle. The high impact forces on lateral portion of the sole can be greater than the relative forces acting on the medial portion of the sole. This significant interaction of forces, in turn may cause several cleats to bend, or collapse in the lateral portion of the sole. The conventional cleats collapsing under the severe loading can cause the foot of the wear to prematurely rollover and may lead to injury of the foot. In addition, the athlete is sometimes left in an awkward position following the planting movement, which can adversely affect the passing and shooting performance of the soccer athlete. Additionally, while conventional soccer shoes can be used for cutting or side-to-side motion, they are ill equipped to enhance the traction for this type of foot movement. Accordingly, an article of footwear for use in the sport of soccer and other similar sports that maximizes performance and minimizes injury was thus needed.